WHO said in a statement that BE was selected as the recipient of the mRNA technology by the WHO’s Vaccine Product Development Advisory Committee (ACPDV) after examining several proposals from India. With this, WHO and its partners will work with the Government of India and BE to develop a roadmap and provide the Hyderabad-based sportsperson with the necessary training and support to start producing mRNA.
“Established primarily to address the COVID-19 emergency, the hub has the potential to expand manufacturing capacity to other products including treatments and targeting other priorities such as malaria, HIV and cancer,” WHO said.
BE is, in fact, working on an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine that is in the early stages of development and clinical trials are expected to begin in the second half of 2022, BE Managing Director Mahima Datla said in February. had initially told TOI in an exclusive interview. ,
It had also indicated that the company was betting on mRNA as a strategic investment that was not specific to COVID-19 vaccines alone. “We think that may have applications not only in vaccines but also in immuno-therapeutics. We want to fix this because we think it will be an important part of our company’s future,” Datla told TOI.
BE is one of the Indian companies with which the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is working to build mRNA vaccine manufacturing capacity, which can be used to tackle future pandemics as well as difficult diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. Can be used as a standby.
mRNA vaccines use messenger RNA made in a laboratory to teach human cells to produce proteins, which in turn initiate an immune response inside the body against a particular disease. The immune response will fight the actual virus as it enters the body.
Describing the development as a milestone in the company’s efforts to create affordable vaccines for the world, Datla said in a statement that BE has been investing in mRNA technologies since last year.
“We are extremely pleased with the trust that WHO places in our organization, which adheres to the standards set by WHO. It is also a reflection of our world-class processes, scale and effectiveness. This new technology has certainly strengthened our resolve. develop and manufacture more vaccines in the future,” she said.
“This partnership with WHO will enhance our ability to develop next-generation mRNA vaccines that may be more globally suitable and expand the availability of vaccines around the world,” Datla said on Monday.